Luminary
by Bookworm452
Summary: Rey meets the legend Luke Skywalker. Takes place at the end of Force Awakens, inspired by the Last Jedi trailer. One-shot.


**So I've wrote one of these before but this contains part of my theory for** _ **The Last Jedi**_ **. Holy shit! The trailer! And my heart! "It's time for the Jedi to end" - Jesus Luke! You've just come back and you're going to rip my heart out all ready.**

 **I haven't seen the panel but I've heard that Daisy Ridley apparently said that some of the film is how you shouldn't meet your heroes or something like that because the concept of a hero is bigger than real life while your hero is just a person, the same as you. I haven't seen any of the panels yet but I was planning to watch them this week (edit to this comment: 14/07/2017 - still haven't watched the panels; probably won't now knowing me - this story was meant to be up last month! ... Oops...). And Hayden Christensen turned up! Wasn't expecting that… Was he there because he felt like it was time? Like he had finally come to terms with things? Will he be a Force ghost in this film? With Luke? Or near Kylo Ren?**

 **Also that picture with him and Mark Hamill.**

 **Kathleen Kennedy got JJ Abrams involved with making TFA by asking him 'who is Luke Skywalker?' - Last Jedi clearly is about that… (Don't kill Luke whoever wrote Last Jedi) - theories on who the Last Jedi is? I've heard different theories: it's Luke, Kylo Ren/Ben, Rey, it's singular, it's plural.**

 **A scroll through facebook found an article that said both Mark and Daisy "fundamentally disagree" with every choice made with the Last Jedi… I'm worried…**

 **For anyone who follows my other story,** _ **Epoch**_ **, the next chapter is still being worked on and I'm going to edit the most recent chapter which brings me to a question. If you've read it, do you prefer how I've wrote the Force feelings in that chapter or do you prefer the general type of vague feelings from the second chapter, that most people write the Force as?**

 **Sorry. Feels over. Question time over. Story time.**

* * *

The water crashed into the rocky cliffs below but still the man in front of her had not said a word. He stared. Stared. His eyes brimming with tears and pain. Her arm holding the lightsabre faltered slightly, lowering from a dull ache.

"Sir," her voice broke slightly on the word. "Sir? You are Luke Skywalker, aren't you?"

"Yes." The one word was gruff and hoarse. Like he hadn't spoke in a long time.

Her heart pounded in her chest, legs feeling weak. _Luke Skywalker_. _I found Luke Skywalker!_ She wanted to yell, laugh and dance all at once. She did it. Done what nobody had been able to do!

He continued to look and stare at her. As though she was some mysterious creature from wild space.

"This is yours." She said excitedly, indicting with the lightsabre. The metal cylinder beamed in the sunlight.

He glanced at it briefly.

"I haven't seen that in a long, long time. It's not mine anymore."

"But Maz said-"

"Who?"

"This old lady on this planet. She said that it was yours and your father's."

Luke shook his head.

"Why are you here? Not to bring me that."

Then Rey looked at him. Really looked at him. How old he seemed. The deep lines of his face. How grey his hair was. How sad his face seemed. This was not how the legends described Luke Skywalker. Then again, those legends were vague and barely spoke of anything. A mysterious Jedi who rose from the ash and sand dunes of Tattooine, a Jedi like his father before him. He saved the galaxy with Leia Organa and Han Solo. That was it. All the legends about him. A mysterious figure, a pillar stone of light it seemed from everyone on the resistance base and how lonely and dark everything seemed without him.

How Han and Chewbacca laughed in memory and sadness when she asked about Luke on the way to the Maz's planet. Calling him a 'kid' and a 'farmboy'. It was all lost on her. They never bothered to explain. Too painful Chewbacca murmured in private, not too long after. The General never spoke about him. Only telling her to find him. No pressure there.

What could she say to him? This legend?

He wasn't like Han. Even when threatening to shoot them, he'd seemed the easy going type. But this man? He didn't. She had no idea _who_ Luke Skywalker really was. Han - he was easy enough. He was a smuggler, his ship, his friends. He was the easy one.

"The General wanted me to find you."

"General?"

"General Organa, sir. She sent me to find you."

"She didn't ask you to bring me this. Leia would tell you a lot of things but bringing me this?" He gestured to the lightsabre. "That's not one of them."

"No. Maz Kanata said that it called to me… She also said that I would find what I seek. With you."

"Throw it away," Luke told her. "Best thing for it. It's brought me nothing but pain… What you seek? Why would she say that?"

"I can use the Force. I used it on Star Killer base to beat Kylo Ren."

He sighed and shook his head.

"You want to be trained." He said.

Rey bit her bottom lip. Yes, she did but that's not what she wanted… She did… But she didn't… Over being a Jedi or knowing about her family. She'd choose her family…

The waves roared loudly. All she could hear was the ocean. A real ocean. All the green, all the blue. All the life. So much more than the dune seas of Jakku.

"... Yes…" Her reply came out as a quiet murmur. For a second, she wasn't sure he had heard her.

"No."

Her heart stopped in her chest. For a second, she thought she'd imagined it.

"W-what?"

"I don't want to train you. I don't do that anymore."

"I don't understand. I was told that - that you could help me. That you could train me."

"There's clearly been a misunderstanding."

"No. You're Luke Skywalker. The Jedi."

"Do I seem like a Jedi to you? I'm hiding out on a planet in the middle of nowhere."

"So that's it? All of this searching, all of this fighting and everything, was for nothing?!"

"I'm sorry." He replied, not sounding sorry at all.

"You're not sorry at all." She gestured wildly to the grassy ground, to the blue ocean and the sky above, "you aren't sorry otherwise you wouldn't still be here! You'd be doing something about it! Do you know that Han is dead? Do you know how he died? Why he died? I saw it! Do you care?!" Rey snarled, the image of Han with that blood red lightsabre sticking out of his chest and falling into the dark depths of the cavern below.

"Han was my best friend so don't you dare say that I don't care about him!"

"Then where were you? His son killed him! While you were hiding out here. What were you doing to try to stop that?!"

Luke didn't say anything. He stared at her, his face was pale, tired and stoic.

"You're letting them win. By staying here you're letting the First Order win. Han's sacrifice will mean nothing!" She continued. She could feel her face burning.

A tiny voice in the back of her head was horrified. _You're yelling at Luke Skywalker! What are you doing?!_

"You've just been hiding out here for what? Ten years? You have no idea what the kriff is going on out there anymore. Do you know what I happened to Hosnian Prime? You don't, do you?" Her eyes burned with unshed tears as she yelled.

"I was recovering from my injuries, when the Knights of Ren attacked the academy. But I've been out here searching for the truth… I learnt the truth about the Jedi and the Sith from being here. It's time for the Jedi to end. Yes, I know what happened but doesn't change the fact that Jedi are outdated and dangerous. This needs to end."

"So that's it? I've travelled from one arse end of the galaxy to the next for you to tell me give up because you think the Jedi should end. The galaxy needs the Jedi! Look what happened to Hosnian Prime? Look at how many people died but they won't get justice because of you." She ground out fiercely. "But you're turning your back on them all so what does it matter to you anymore? If you came out here to hide like you said, why did you leave a map? You're not Luke Skywalker."

"Why not? Because I won't run in to save the galaxy again? I'm not as young as I once was. I'm tired of running in and cleaning up everyone's mistakes."

"You're a Jedi!"

"A Jedi?!" He laughed bitterly. "I certainly am a Jedi if the destruction of the academy is anything to go by. Apparently it's a kriffing requirement. So sorry to disappoint you. Whatever mysterious hero you're expecting doesn't exist."

Instead of replying, she turned and walked away towards the cliff side and sat down, Skywalker lightsabre still in her hand. Kriff you. I'm going to sit here until you decide to speak to me. Kriff you, Luke Skywalker. There really is so much green and so much blue. It was amazing.

The sky seemed a much richer blue than the pale, cloudless Jakku sky. Her heart pounded as she watched the sun slowly begin to sink beneath the horizon.

Then a big plume of black smoke rose gracefully from behind the cliff. Heart in her throat, she activated the lightsabre and ran towards it. The blue beam of plasma was a calm, steady hum against her palm.

Her first thought was Luke. That she was going to find his dead, burning body. There would be no hope for the galaxy… What would she tell the General?

Please be okay. Please be okay.

Suddenly her feet weren't beating against grass anymore but stone. Dark, solid stone. She didn't remember seeing anything like this on the island. It was too smooth, worn away by years of feet and too dark to be the same stone that made up the steps on the island. Her stomach dropped like she had just swallowing a piece of scrap from a Star Destroyer. Slowly, hesitantly, Rey looked up from the stone to the view in front her. Her stomach clenched and heaved, her throat felt tight but nothing came up.

There were so many children, all glassy eyed, just lying there on the grass. They weren't moving. They were dead. A sob broke through her lips before she could stop it. She'd seen dead bodies before. People had died for many reasons on Jakku but she'd been one of the few children around the trading post. They'd only ever visited once so she had no what happened to them.

A familiar looking astromech stood in front of her, beeping mournfully. Next to it, metal hand resting on the metal dome. It belonged to a figure in a worn, brown cloak.

Fire was burning through an almost hollow building. A brilliant light that she could probably see through her eyelids. Then marching through the building was a figure she vaguely recognised from Starkiller Base. A chrome armoured stormtrooper.

Quiet sobbing met her ears. Not her own this time. When she stepped forward on unsteady legs, she peered round to see the face beneath the brown hood.

Her breath froze in her throat. Luke Skywalker. This was his academy.

Without thinking, she ran towards the stormtrooper, lightsabre still in hand and into the burning ruins. And instantly regretted her decision. She couldn't breathe. The smoke was in her lungs.

Oh, no. She was going to die. The world was darkening and then suddenly it was becoming lighter. The thick, black plumes of smoke turned into fluffy white clouds.

She reached out blindly, her hand resting on something hard and flat as she gasped for breath. In, out. In, out. The smell of burning wood became the smell of sea air.

"That's one thing that I don't miss." A new, unfamiliar voice said.

She turned to where the voice came from, or tried to. Her head was swimming, why did she had eight fingers on one hand?

Her stomach dropped.

The fire. Luke. The kids.

"What was that?" She choked out, a feeling of deja vu overcoming her. 'You barely ate before setting off so don't throw up,' She thought to herself.

"The Jedi Academy's last night. The First Order burnt it to the ground and everyone inside it."

Finally her vision became clearer. The clouds became defined. Her hands were gripping clumps of grass with a bone white grip. Two faces were peering at her with a similar, curious expression. For a brief moment, Rey thought she was seeing double.

The two faces were similar. Same blue eyes. Same face shape. But Luke with his grey hair, grey beard and tired face looked much older than the other.

Was this Luke Skywalker's son? She hadn't heard of him having a child. Then again, she hadn't of anything about any of them, beyond them defeating the Empire and becoming heroes. She had no idea how Princess Leia became General Organa. How the son of Princess Leia and Han Solo became Kylo Ren.

The young man had a scar through bisecting his eye. Long dark blonde hair, curling across his forehead and around his shoulders. Did he get that scar protecting his dad at the Academy?

"Are you alright?" The newcomer asked hesitantly, glancing at Luke with a stern expression.

"You're a kriffing coward!" She yelled at this supposedly Master Jedi and ignored the younger man, her eyes hot and burning with tears. "At the very least you could go comfort your sister when she's just lost her husband, your best friend and you could go to his funeral!"

The man pressed his lips together, like wanted to say something and was stopping himself. He gestured for her to follow him. The first few steps were tricky due to her unsteady legs.

"Where are you from?" He asked instead, ignoring her outburst.

"Jakku."

"That junkyard?" He questioned in disbelief, amusement colouring his tone.

"Why the kriff does everyone keep calling it that? It's not a junkyard." She protested.

Luke let out a sound that she hadn't heard. It was a laugh. An actual laugh. She'd made him laugh.

"You've just done something nobody has been able to do in a long time." Anakin told her, a massive grin on his face.

"What?"

"You made my son laugh."

"Your son?" She questioned, coming to a complete stand-still in shock and disbelief. Her voice barely audible as she peered at the man. The closer she looked, the less he seemed to … be there. His body, upon closer inspection, was not entirely solid. He was almost transparent in places. Not the son of Luke Skywalker but his father.

"How old are you?"

"I stopped tracking the years awhile back but around 76 standard years."

"Looking good for your age."

"Thanks, kid."

"What happened to him?" Rey asked, staring at Luke's back. He hadn't acknowledged that she wasn't walking with him.

"Aside from my death, all his hard work being destroyed and multiple injuries that should have killed him? He is the only Jedi that hasn't been taught the religious side of being a Jedi because he was raised when the Empire was at the height of its power, away from any kind of civilisation. There were no Jedi then. Only a few ones in hiding, too old to do anything and Force Sensitives who were used by Palpatine. The Old Order took children from their parents, indoctrinated them from a young age into their beliefs." He spat the last bit out bitterly, like it was something he'd rather forget. "Palpatine started to do the same thing. Right under my nose."

"And Luke wasn't."

"He was scarred by what happened that night. He spent a few years here, recovering and trying to get his strength back hence the map. But then he stopped listening to me, stopped asking me questions. Never tried to talk to me… I tried to get through to Leia. She wanted nothing to do with me. I tried to get through to Ben but he couldn't hear me. I don't know. Maybe he could and just had been brainwashed into thinking that I wasn't me. The guilt of surviving got to him, I think. He even dumped his daughter on some backwards planet after Phasma killed Anya, knowing that she'd never get off. Probably thought if she never left, there'd be no reason for the Jedi anymore and there'd be no more Jedi. Maybe he thought he was protecting her, the guilt and grief probably drove him insane that night. I don't know but I begged him not to leave that little girl."

Rey's breath froze in her throat. Her heart going boom boom boom, feeling like it was in her throat and the tips of her fingers felt pale and fuzzy. Girl? … Was that her? Maybe? Could she even dare to hope?

"Skywalker's and giving up. Those words don't go in the same sentence unless there's also a not in there. But Luke hit his breaking point I think. He can't see the good in himself anymore. He saw the good in despite everything but he's lost himself now. And I can't do a thing to help him. Maybe you can." The man sounded hopeful, raising his eyebrows slightly.

But she didn't want to be the daughter of a legend, to be the daughter of Luke Skywalker (what would be the chances of that anyway? It was very unlikely that she was his daughter)… She just wanted to be someone's family. It might not be all that bad, if she just tried to forget all of the legends and stories. Just start thinking of him as Luke. Then again who is Luke Skywalker? Some legendary Jedi? Not just a Jedi but who? He was human. He was a Jedi Knight who was never taught the religion, but Luke was a force for good. Even when he lost his way and needed a shove. A good friend according to Han. A good man… But a man nevertheless. One scarred and scared who needs help. She hoped she was the right person to give that.


End file.
